The present invention pertains to a container, and in particular, to a collapsible container.
Collapsible containers, such as cardboard boxes, are commonly employed to ship goods from one location to another. Frequently, once the goods have been removed from the boxes, the boxes are collapsed and returned to the sender. Conventional boxes are collapsed by outwardly folding the top and bottom portions and flattening the sides diagonally toward one another. This arrangement, however, substantially increases the lateral dimensions of the box as compared to its assembled shape. Such enlargement of the boxes further burdens handling and storage, and results in increased return shipping costs.
Additionally, containers are at times secured to pallets for increased strength and to facilitate handling of the containers with a fork lift truck. However, the boxes must generally be removed from the pallets before they can be collapsed. Under these circumstances, return of the boxes becomes very labor intensive and slow. Moreover, the sender of the goods must repeatedly re-secure the boxes to the pallets for their reuse.